The times are changing

Brinley has been growing up so fast lately. She is now 9 ½ months old! Since we have been here I feel like she has changed dramatically. Here are some of the things she has been doing:

Finally sleeping through the night! For the past two weeks Brinley has slept through the night every night. Doesn’t sound like much for a 9 month old, but for us this is wonderful. For the past three or four months Brinley decided that she wanted to wake up every 3 hours on the dot, all night long. I had forgotten what it was like to actually sleep at night. We did recently move her into our closet (a little Harry Potterish, I know). It’s the darkest place we could find and it has seemed to do the trick.

Brinley is also finally eating food. For some reason she would never eat ANYTHING before we moved out here. She wouldn’t even take a bottle, meaning that she could never leave mom for more than 3 hour period. So lovely. As soon as we got here she became an eating champ. She will eat virtually anything. She has mostly had just baby food but has occasionally had bites of mom and dad’s food. Her favorite: otter pops. She is just like her mom.

Brinley has finally started crawling! She still prefers army crawling to crawling on her knees, although she can do it if she wants. She crawls all over our apartment, eating anything she can possibly find, the toilet being her favorite. Needless to say we keep the bathroom doors closed.

She can pull herself up onto our coffee table and walk all around it. This is the best toy we have right now. She also loves to walk around holding our hands.

This way is more fun anyways.

I love this picture. She looks so grown up with her jeans and shoes, standing up.

This little munchkin really is at a fun stage right now. We love playing with her. We are so lucky to be a mom and dad and have this little girl to take care of. I couldn’t ask for anything better!

Greenville Mississippi

I promised I would tell you some about where we are living. So here it is! For the next 2 years we will be living in a little town called Greenville in Mississippi. Brent is going to be teaching in Lake Village in Arkansas about 20 minutes away. We opted to live in Greenville for many reasons. For one they actually have things, i.e. a grocery store. There are also people here and places to live for a decent price. All in all we are happy with our decision to live here and have enjoyed it so far. Here are some things about Greenville:

The water is brown. Brent claims that it is safe to drink but it scares me half to death. I guess I developed a water complex after living in Thailand where we couldn’t drink the water. I have got up the gumption to drink some. I don’t particularly like the taste of it but I guess it’s time to deal with it.

The people are awesome. Everyone is extremely friendly. We have had a few encounters while we’ve been out where we have ended up talking to strangers for hours. Southern hospitality. It’s a real deal.

There are some really cool little areas around here. There is what is called a Cypress Slough (pronounced slew) about 15 seconds from our apartment. It’s a marshy area where the cypress trees grow out of the water. There are places like this all around. It really is beautiful. Here are some pictures of the one next to our apartment.

The green stuff is actually water. It just has a layer of something on top (not sure what it is).

I just can’t wait until we find an alligator in it. Our one alligator hunt didn’t end up producing any alligators for us. My one goal is to see one before we leave.

Fried foods. Need I say more? So far we have had blackened catfish, fried catfish, fried oysters, fried shrimp, hush puppies, and of course my favorite, fried frog legs. Yum!

I have learned that plenty of people don’t really speak English down here. I am not really sure what language they are speaking. All I know is that I do not understand.

Walmart has now become my favorite store. I was never much of a walmart shopper but I almost live there now. Greenville, as big as it is, has the one movie theater within a 50 mile radius. It has a mall that has a total of 3 stores in it. I have yet to find a craft store or any fabric stores that I dare go into. Well at least I won’t be tempted to shop while we are here!

We are looking forward to the fall when we can go outside for thirty seconds without sweating out all the water we drank in the last 24 hours. We really are having a great time learning to make new friends and navigating a new place. Here are some pictures of Brinley since we have been here.

At Walmart on a futon couch. She loved it.

We miss you all and can’t wait until we see you again!

Link

So while I'm in my last week of institute for Teach For America and while I have so much to tell people about my experience so far, here is an article about TFA in the New York Times if you are interested.

The main differences between the people they talk to in Texas versus here in the Mississippi Delta is that we get paid quite a bit less and we wake up to get on buses a bit earlier. Enjoy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/education/12winerip.html?_r=2&hp

We're There!

I finally made it to Mississippi! It was quite the journey getting here and I am very glad it’s over. Just a recap, Brent came to Mississippi a month ago and wasn’t able to come back home to help us pack up and move. So, It became my responsibility to do it all for us. This wasn’t the easiest task because we had decided earlier that we would pull a large trailer we purchased behind the back of our car all the way there instead of getting a Uhaul. This meant we had to figure out how to build walls for the trailer (thankfully Brent was able to do that before he left), somehow fasten a tarp to the top to cover everything up, build a back so nothing would fall out, and then the best part of all trying to get all of our stuff into it. In the end with the help of a lot of family we got everything packed up, and my brother and I headed out on a very very very long nervous trip to Mississippi (35 hours to be exact).

After being away from Brent for so long and having to do so many things I was not accustomed to, I really learned a lot from this whole experience. This was a very trying time for me but I would do it again. I feel like I grew a lot and learned to get over a some of my fears that I otherwise wouldn’t have. Here are just a few of the things that I learned from this experience:

1. I have the best family ever. I literally could not have done it without them. Both sides of my family were a great help. Thanks to my Kyle for helping me to drive across the country (well actually driving the whole way so I didn’t have to pull the trailer at all). Thanks to my Dad for helping me get my car and the trailer ready to go even when he had more to do than he could handle. Thanks to Jen for giving me hope that I really could do it all. And thanks to everyone else who helped in so many ways. I love you all.

2. Kansas is the longest state ever. Wow I almost went crazy. I was very thankful that it was flat so we could drive a little faster though.

3. I am not pulling a trailer across the country again. Ever. Next time, we are getting a Uhaul. It was way more work and scary than it was worth what we saved.

4. It’s okay to ask for help. When you don’t know how or can’t do something yourself it’s okay to get help. I have always liked to be independent and don’t like to have to rely on others. It was a good lesson for me to get over my pride and enlist the help of those around me. Again, thanks everyone.

5. Just do it. Sometime you just have to suck it up and go for it.

It is so good to finally be here with Brent. I missed him so much and have loved exploring around here with him. Mississippi is very different from Utah but so far I really like it. The people are amazing and it is a beautiful part of the country that I will get to experience in a way that I would not have been able to if we didn’t decide to move here. I will post some pictures and give an update about it soon!

Mississippi here I come!

I am about to make my way to Mississippi to finally be with Brent again. I am leaving tomorrow and after a three days journey will make it there by Friday. I can't tell you how excited I am to see Brent. But I am going to miss this place a lot. Luckily I have a lot to look forward to in going (mainly being with my husband again) so leaving doesn't seem quite as bad as it would otherwise. There are so many things I wish I could do before I leave, but of course no time to do them all today. I will miss everyone!

Lederrick

Another name is Lederrick. He just goes by Tre. I like the name Tre a lot. I think I want to name a boy something and call him Tre for short. Any ideas for the full name? Treyn (pronounced train) and call him Tre? Any ideas?

Kentavius

I have an awesome student named Kentavius. His name is very cool too. It reminds me of a name my roommate had on his class roster - Trentarius. That one reminds me of my little nepehew, I think he would think the name Trentarius was pretty silly.

Anyway, I'm about to leave for church so I can take the 1 hour drive and make it in time to get on the stand and speak. Thats right. 4 weeks there, one talk in sacrament meeting, 2 weeks teaching primary, and 1 week of being new. Its great to be involved here in such a small ward. I'm glad I've been able to help out every week. I'll be back in 5 hours!